Book-holder.



No. 860,772. PATENTED JULY 23, 1907. B. & F. A. TAYLOR.

BOOK HOLDER.

APPLICATION FILED NIB. 8. 1906.

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UNITED STATES PATENT orrron.

EDMUND B. TAYLOR AND FRED A. TAYLOR, OF PITTSFIELD, MAINE.

BOOK-HOLDER.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented July 23, 1907.

Application filed February 8,1906. Serial No. 300,061-

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, EDMUND B. TAYLOR and FRED A. TAYLOR, citizens of the United States, residing at Pittsfield, in the county of Somerset and State of Maine, have invented an Improvement in Book-Holders, of which the following description, in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a specification, like letters on the drawings representing like parts.

Om invention relates to book holders and particularly to holders for telephone directories and the like, and the object of the invention is to provide a holder of the class described, in which the book can be quickly and easily placed or from which it can be as readily removed; which will not require the book to be perforated or otherwise mutilated, and which may be readily altered so as to change the angle at which the book is supported while being used.

Also it is the object of our invention to generally improve the construction and mode of operation of book holders.

The improved book holder is made with a bo0kengaging member provided with means by which it can be hung or attached to a support, .and in one form of our invention this book-engaging member comprises a frame to extend along the back of the book and a blade or the like hinged to the frame and adapted to extend through the book between the leaves and thereby hold the book to the frame, means being provided to hold the blade in its closed position with provision for re leasing the blade by relative movement in a predetermined fashion between the blade and frame.

Another feature of the invention consists in movably mounting the book-engaging member on a support, and in providing a latch on one of said parts which cooperates with an adjustable abutment on the other of said parts, to hold the book-engaging member at the desired That is, the abutment is adjustable, so that the angle at which the book is supported while in use may be varied at will and at the same time the arrangement is such that the adjustable abutment is always in position to cooperate with the latch.

Other features of our invention are hereinafter pointed out.

In the accompanying drawings:-Figure 1 is a side elevation of a book holder embodying one form of our invention. Fig. 2 is a front view of the book holder shown in Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a sectional view of the holder shown in Fig. 1, but with the book-engaging member occupying another position. Fig. 4 is a section on line 4-4 of Fig. 1. Fig. 5 shows the swinging bracket which may form part of our improved holder. Fig. 6 is a detail of the support. Fig. 7 shows a modified form of holder.

The book-engaging member of that form of our improved holder shown in Figs. 1 to 5, inclusive, comprises a thin springy frame a and blade a At its upper end the frame a is made with a lateral projection a which at its outer end is slotted to loosely embrace the upper end of blade a, and also coiled tightly around the ends of a pin a extending through a slot a in the upper end of blade a At its lower end frame a is made with a lateral projection a having its extremity bent over inwardly and back toward the body of frame a and slotted as at a to pocket the lower end of blade a. Near its upper end blade a is provided with two oppositely projecting retaining lugs or finger pieces, a for controlling the position of the blade (1 The upper end of frame a terminates in a spring a which serves to yieldingly hold blade 11 against endwise upward movement, so that when the lower end of said blade is in slot a it cannot be removed except by lilting blade a against the pressure of spring a That is, normally, blade (1 is held against accidental displacement by spring a but said blade can be freed from slot (1 by grasping lugs a and lifting the blade against the pres sure of spring a until the lower end thereof clears slot a, after which the blade can be swung outwardly on pin a as a pivot to open the book-engaging member, for the purpose of inserting or removing the book. If the book is being inserted, its back is placed against frame a, as indicated by dotted lines in Figs. 1 and 4, and blade at is swung down between the leaves of the book as indicated in Fig. 4, and then shifted endwise so as to insert its lower end in slot a.

As shown in Figs. 1 to 5, inclusive, the book-engaging memberabove described is pivotally hung to a U- shaped support b, and to provide for this the upper end of frame a has fixed to it a strong, stiff extension, a", carrying at its upper end a U-shaped head a fitting within support I). A pin 11 serves to connect the two wings of head a to the two wings of support b, with provision for relative swinging movement around the axis of said pin.

Fixed at its ends to the wings of head a a short distance from the pivot pin b is a pin a, on which ispivoted a latch at, having near its outer enda slot a ,co6perat ing with an adjustable abutment b herein shown as a nut mounted on the upper threaded end of a rod I) fixed to the back of support I). Latch a is held against abutment b by a spring a, and pin a, and is so positioned that when the book-engaging member is swung outwardly on pin 1) the latch is carried down until slot at registers with the abutment, whereupon spring a acting on the latch causes the abutment to enter the slot and lock the parts against further movement until latch is freed by hand from the abutment. It will thus be seen, that when the book is to be used and the book-engaging member is swung outwardly on pivot b.

said member is automatically caught and locked in its extended position, and also that simply by adjusting abutment b on rod 1) the angle at which the book is thus supported while being used may be varied at will, which is a matter of some importance.

Pivotally mounted in the wings of support bnear the top and front thereof, as at d, is a leaf-holder or spreader, d, the longer end of which is adapted to be swung toward and from the book and the shorter end of which is in engagement with the free end of spring a. When the spreader is swung from one extreme position to the other, or, in other words, from the position shown in Fig. l to the position shown in Fig. 2, the shorter end passes between pivot d and spring a from one side of the pivot to the other, so that said spring will hold the spreader in either of its two positions. When the bookengaging member is in extended position and after the book has been opened to the proper place the operator swings spreader (Z down between the leaves of the book as in Fig. 3, where it is held by the pressure of spring a, so as to keep the book open while being used.

The lower end of the rod 1) is extended below support b and mounted to turn in a socket 0 provided in the upper end of a crank-shaped bracket 0, pivoted at its lower end to a wall, desk or other fixture, as shown in Fig. 5. A bracket of this form permits the book holder to be moved bodily'from an out of the way position into a position convenient for use, while by hav ing the support b swiveled in the upper end of bracket 0 the holder can be turned about on the bracket without bodily movement and as may be found convenient.

In Fig. 7 I have shown another form of my invention, wherein the blade (1 is pivoted to pin a without provision for sliding movement on said pin, the latter being placed directly in the upper spring-end of the holder and the support b is an eye made with a shank swiveled to the frame a. In this form of my invention the relative movement between the blade and frame through which the freeing or locking of the blade is effected, is provided for by making either, or preferably both, of pliable sheet metals so that by slightly springing either, or both parts, the end of the blade (1 can be inserted in the slot of projection (L or withdrawn therefrom.

In both forms, the holder is held rigid and stiff by the engagement of the back of the book with the back of the holder, the two being pressed firmly together by the blade a.

Having described our invention, what we claim as new and desire to SGClllG by Letters Patent is:

l. A book holder, comprising a frame to extend along the back of the book, having a thin blade pivoted thereto for extending through the book between the leaves, said frame having a broad fiat upturned end embracing said blade opposite the pivoted end and provided with means for detachably engaging said blade, and yielding means for permitting the disengaging of said frame and blade.

2. A book holder, comprising a frame to extend along the back of the book, having its opposite ends bent forwardly to lap over the opposite ends of the book, a thin blade pivoted at one end to said frame, in line with the forward ends of said forwardly bent portions, to extend through the book between the leaves thereof, the free end of said frame opposite said pivot having a longitudinal slot closed at its outer end for receiving and retaining the adjacent end of said blade, and yielding means for permitting the releasing of said blade.

3. A book holder, comprising a frame of thin flat spring metal to extend along the back of the book, having its opposite ends bent forwardly to lap over the opposite ends of the book, and a thin blade pivoted at one end to said frame, in line with the forward ends of said forwardly bent portions, to extend through the book between the leaves thereof, the free end of said frame opposite said pivot having a longitudinal slot closed at its outer end for receiving the adjacent end of said blade, said blade at its pivot having a longitudinal slot for permitting it to move for disengagement from the slotted end of said frame.

4. A book holder, comprising a frame to extend along the back of the book, having a thin blade pivoted thereto for extending through the book between the leaves, means for detachably engaging said blade and frame opposite the pivoted end, yielding means for permitting the disengaging of said frame and blade, a vertical support U-shaped in cross section embracing said frame, and a rod extending vertically along the back of said support, the latter being mounted to swing horizontally on said rod and said frame being mounted to swing vertically in said support.

5. A book holder, comprising a frame to extend along the back of the book, having a thin blade pivoted thereto for extending through the hook between the leaves, means for detachably engaging said blade and frame opposite the pivoted end, yielding means for permitting the disengaging of said frame and blade, a support for said frame, a rod carrying said support, the latter being mounted to swing horizontally on said rod, and said frame being mounted to swing vertically in said support, and automatic means between said rod and said frame for locking the latter when swung into an angular position on its pivot.

G. In a device of the kind described, a supporting rod, a frame support mounted thereon to swing horizontally, a book-holdingfraine horizontally pivoted to said support, a latch pivoted to said frame eccentrically of the pivot of the latter, and means cooperating with said latch to automatically engage the latter when the frame is swung angularly for holding the frame and its book in said angular position.

7. In a device of the kind described, a supporting rod, a frame support mounted thereon to swing horizontally, a booloholding frame horizontally pivoted to said support, a latch pivoted to said frame eccentrically of the pivot of the latter, a transverse slot in said latch, and an adjustable abutment for engaging said slot when the swinging of said frame has moved-said latch so as to bring its slot into alinement with said abutment.

8. In a device of the kind described, a vertical rod, means pivotally supporting the same, a shouldered nut threaded on said rod, a book support mounted on said rod to swing horizontally, a holding frame for a book, transversely pivoted to said book support, and a spring-held and pivoted latch extending eccentrically from said frame to said shouldered nut and having a slot for snapping over said nut when the frame is swung angularly.

9. In a device of the kind described, a book support, means carrying the same for swinging in a horizontal plane, a holding frame pivoted transversely in said book support, a spreader also pivoted in said hook support above said frame, and an automatic spring latch pivoted to said frame and extending upwardly along said support between said carrying means and spreader, said latch containing means for yieldingly engagingsaid spreader and for cooperating with said carrying means in locking said frame in operative position.

, In testimony whereof, we have signed our names to this specification, in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

EDMUND B. TAYLOR. FRED A. TAYLOR.

Witnesses Gun. II. MAXWELL,

M. A. Jonas. 

